Tag Archives: Tales

London-based band The Tiger Lillies are one of those groups it’s impossible to describe to someone who’s never experienced them. Their unique brand of concert/performance art takes elements of Wiemar Republic caberet, Bertolt Brecht, opera, Jacques Brel and your worst childhood nightmares and mixes them a soupcon of postmodern absurdism to cook up the kind of theater that Sally Bowles and the Kit Kat girls would be making, were they still around, all with a decidedly queer twist.

The Tiger Lillies bring their uniquely anarchistic sights and sounds to Wortham Center’s Cullen Theater, (501 Texas Avenue) Friday, November 4, at 8 pm. The show is co-presented by Society for the Performing Arts and DiverseWorks. This American Leg of their “Gutter’s and Stars Tour” features fan favorites and some new material.

Founded in 1989, the Tiger Lillies worked their way up from London pubs to the Piccadilly Theatre, finally achieving cult status with their masterpiece, the musical “Shockheaded Peter,” a series of grisly fairy tales adapted from the 19th century German book “Struwwelpeter,” in which all of the children die at the end.

Queer highlights from the upcoming theater season

RICH LOPEZ | Staff Writer

Anticipation should be strong for the upcoming theater season in general. Ambitious shows like Giant, The Tempest, West Side Story and Hairspray all dot the stage horizon.
But we also like to see some of our own up there. As we look over the upcoming offerings from local theater companies, we always ask, “Where’s the gay?” In addition to Uptown Players’ first Dallas Pride Performing Arts Festival, here are some of the others.

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Fall

Although the Dallas Opera canceled the opera she was set to star in, lesbian soprano Patricia Racette will still perform at a TDO gala. (Photo Devon Cass)

Singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik gave an indie music flair to the musical adaptation of the 1891 play Spring Awakening. Set in 19th century Germany, Awakening follows a group of youths as they discover more about themselves and their rapidly developing sexuality.

The original Frank Wedekind play was controversial in its day, depicting abortion, homosexuality, rape and suicide. Now the show just has an added rock ‘n’ roll score. Along with Sheik’s musical perspective, Steven Slater wrote the book and lyrics in this updated version which debuted in 2006 on Broadway and won the Tony for Best Musical. Terry Martin directs.

It’s almost un-Texan if you’re gay and not familiar with Del Shores’ tales of Southern discomfort. Southern Baptist Sissies and Sordid Lives are pretty much part of the queer vernacular in these parts, but Shores got his start way back in 1987.

How will those northern folks take to Shores work (And by north, we mean past Central Expressway past LBJ)? Jeni Helms directs Daddy’s Dyin’: Who’s Got the Will for McKinney Repertory Theatre this fall. As the family patriarch suffers a stroke, the Turnover family gathers as they wait for his death. This family may just put the fun in dysfunctional.

WingSpan Theatre Co. will produce one of the greater comedies of theater-dom this fall: Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, with Nancy Sherrard sparring over the gay wit’s price bon mots as Lady Bracknell.

Although A Catered Affair might sound a bit like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, it has the added flair of Harvey Fierstein’s wit. That’s because he wrote the book for the show alongside John Bucchino’s music and lyrics. The play is based on the Gore Vidal-penned 1956 film The Catered Affair starring Bette Davis.

When Jane and Ralph decide to get married, Jane’s mom Agnes wants to put on an elaborate spectacle of a wedding. The truth is, she can’t afford it and Jane isn’t all too thrilled about a huge affair. As in most cases, the wedding planning is more about the mom than the daughter and Agnes soon realizes the fact. Jane’s Uncle Winston — the proverbial gay uncle — is left off the guest list and is rightfully pissed. But as most gay characters, he rallies to be the voice of reason and support.

Lesbian soprano Patricia Racette was going to be featured in the production of Katya Kabanová but unfortunately the show was canceled by the Dallas Opera. But fear not. Dallas will still get to bask in the greatness that is her voice as Racette will perform An Evening with Patricia Racette, a cabaret show with classics from the Great American Songbook for a patron recital.

Spring

Nancy Sherrard will star as Lady Bracknell in WIngSpan Theater Co.’s fall production of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest,’ perhaps the greatest comedy ever written by theaterdom’s gayest wit.

Kevin Moriarty directs Next Fall for the Dallas Theater Center next spring. Written by Geoffrey Nauffts, the play centers on Luke and Adam, a couple with some unusual issues. What’s new about that in gay couplehood? Not much, but when Adam’s an absolute atheist and Luke’s a devout Christian, the two have been doing their best to make it work.
The comedy played on Broadway in 2010, garnering Tony and Drama Desk nominations. And now Dallas gets to see how, as DTC puts it, “relationships can be a beautiful mess.”
Kalita Humphreys Theater, 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd. April 13–May 6. DallasTheaterCenter.org.

Perhaps the most surprising queer offering this next season is Theatre Arlington’s production of The Laramie Project. The show usually creates quite a stir — at least it did in Tyler, thanks to Trinity Wheeler — so how will this suburban audience handle it? Doesn’t matter. Props to T.A. for taking Moises Kaufman’s play about the tragic bashing and death of Matthew Shepard to its community.

Usually the question with MBS Productions is “what’s not gay?” Founder Mark-Brian Sonna has consistently delivered tales of gay woe and love that are sometimes silly and sometimes sweet, but always a laugh.

This season is no different. Playwright Alejandro de la Costa brings back drag queen Lovely Uranus in The Importance of Being Lovely. The last time we saw Uranus, Sonna wore the stilettos and pink wig in last season’s Outrageous, Sexy, (nekkid) Romp. This time around, Uranus graduates to leading lady status as the show is all about her as audiences follow her through the changes she makes in her make-up, wigs and men.

What’s with socially conservative presidential hopefuls choosing the AFA’s uber-incendiary Bryan Fischer as the place to break news? Last week it was Tim Pawlenty announcing he wants to reinstate Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. This week it’s TEA party favorite Herman Cain, kibitzing with Fischer about all kinds of “radical homosexual agenda” planks.

We’ve yet to hear the audio, but here’s Fischer’s take on what went down:

Yesterday, perhaps for the first time since forming his exploratory committee, [Herman Cain] declared his firm pro-life convictions and his opposition to the radical homosexual agenda.

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Another goal of the homosexual lobby is passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would give special workplace rights to individuals based solely on their participation in sexually deviant behavior. It further would expose any values-driven employer to a business-destroying lawsuit should he ever take abnormal sexual conduct into account in personnel decisions.

I asked Cain about whether, as president, he would veto ENDA if it made it to his desk, and he assured me that he would. Said Cain, “I would veto that relative to special rights to homosexuals.”

Bottom line: in Herman Cain, social conservatives as well as fiscal conservatives have a lot to like.

***UPDATE2: Newsweek notes recent raised profile: “You might think that attention in the form of mockery is not what a public-policy organization would want. But when your business is waging a culture war, there is no such thing as bad publicity for ideological or rhetorical extremism.” [Newsweek]

When it comes to politics, Christians must pick their spiritual battles. And today, longtime foe of the ‘mos Robert Knight is choosing to fight President Obama on this contention that everyone is a child of God:

On October 14, Obama said people are born with a certain makeup, claiming all are “children of God.” Furthermore, he said, people do not make choices about who they love.

“That’s a mangling of scripture [which] says not everybody is a child of God,” Knight responds. “We’re all created in God’s image, but to be a child of God means to come under God’s authority and to honor God above all else and to submit to Jesus Christ.”

Tony award-winning actress Betty Buckley will play Anna Madrigal, one
of the vivid characters in the workshop of the much-anticipated musical
stage adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. Advocate.com: Daily News

The 36-year-old annual arts festival Greenbelt, held in each year in England, regularly attracts popular Christian and mainstream music acts. Oh, and The Gays. This year it's activist Peter Tatchell, who will give a talk. Last year it was American Bishop V. Gene Robinson. All of which means the Anglican Mainstream, the Church of England's conservative cheerleading section, wasted breath demanding good Christians boycott the festival, because ew, gays! But for this weekend's event, the Anglicans are being ignored, and Greenbelt activists aren't caving to their demands; Tatchell remains on the docket. All this, despite the Anglican Mainstream's Dr. Lisa Nolland warning religious types that by inviting Tatchell, Greenbelt put child attendees at risk of sexual abuse. The scandal has paid off: Ticket sales this year have increased.